Investigators are now looking into what may have set off 26-year-old Esteban Santiago Ruiz into a shooting rampage that left five dead and six others wounded.

“Only thing I could tell you was when he came out of Iraq, he wasn’t feeling too good,” his uncle, Hernan Rivera, told the Bergen Record newspaper, as reported by The Associated Press.

Bryan Santiago, the suspect’s brother, said Esteban’s girlfriend had recently called the family to alert them to his treatment. Though, she didn’t provide many details.

“We have not talked for the past three weeks,” Bryan Santiago said. “That’s a bit unusual… I’m in shock. He was a serious person… he was a normal person.”

On Friday, Esteban Santiago took a flight from Alaska to Florida with a lay over stop in Minnesota. Somewhere along the way, he got into an argument with someone, officials said.

According to Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca, Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale with a gun that he checked in.

“He claimed his bag and took the gun from baggage and went into the bathroom to load it. Came out shooting people in baggage claim,” LaMarca said.

Passengers are legally allowed to travel with guns and ammunition as long as the firearms are unloaded, secured in a lock box and not brought on board the plane as a carry-on. They must be declared to the airline at check-in.

Earlier reports claimed Santiago came in on a flight from Canada. On the company’s Twitter account, Air Canada confirmed that no one by that name was on their flight.

It was later determined that Santiago-Ruiz was on a Delta Air Lines flight.

Santiago was born to Puerto Rican parents in New Jersey and recently became a father of a baby boy.

His aunt, according to nj.com, said after a tour of duty in Iraq, he “lost his mind” and was hospitalized at one point for mental health issues.

The Pentagon said he went AWOL several times as a specialist during a stint with the Alaska National Guard and was demoted to private first class, the Associated Press reported. He was given a general discharge, which is lower than an honorable discharge.

In November 2016, he walked into an FBI office in Anchorage claiming that he was being forced to fight for ISIS and was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

FBI spokesman George Piro confirmed he was evaluated by the FBI while living in Alaska.

“He did go to our office in Anchorage, but he did not want to commit harm,” the agent said. “He voluntarily entered our office and was interviewed by agents of the office. He was turned over to local custody and then taken to a local hospital.”

So far, Santiago has no known connection to terrorism, with the exception of this photo showing him wearing an Arabic keffiyeh and pointing a finger in the air – a symbol ISIL militants use.

However, the FBI has not ruled out anything.

“We have begun the difficult task of processing the crime scene,” said the FBI’s George Piro. “We have not ruled out terrorism and we will be perusing every angle to try to determine a motive behind this attack.”

About five years ago, he was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations for child porn. Three weapons and a computer were seized, but there was not enough evidence to prosecute, according to law enforcement sources.

Santiago also has a record for minor traffic violations and was evicted in 2015 for not paying rent.

He had been living in a modest apartment in Anchorage. His neighbor was in disbelief.

“He was always pleasant. Didn’t show any signs of no threats. Just always pleasant,” said Perette Carter. “He used to play with my niece and nephews. My brother talked to him. Always pleasant.”

Police were able to apprehend the alleged gunman without having to fire their own weapons when he apparently ran out of bullets. Witnesses said he threw down his firearm and laid on the floor with his hands and feet spread out wide.

He wasn’t hurt in the incident and no one else was taken into custody.

James AmalinoJames joined the CBS4 News team in September 2015 as a Web Producer.
He began his career with CBS Interactive in Ft. Lauderdale, helping to make...More fromJames Amalino

My thoughts exactly – when he was put in a nut house because he said he was being forced to fight for ISIS why wasn’t he put on a no-fly list? What is the point of a no fly list if this guy wasn’t on it????

And yet again…. ANOTHER mass shooter with “Mental Health Problems”.
When are Leftists going to get it, it’s not the gun that needs fixing, it’s the Mental Health System and the elimination of “gun free zones”. What are we up to now, 95% of mass shooters having mental health issues?

Wait what? You dont truly believe that the mentally ill should be allowed to possess guns do you? This was a crime of opportunity because he HAD easy access to a gun, not because he is some criminal mastermind who illegally got the gun. There is no reason the mentally ill should be armed, period.

The better question is why are the proven mentally ill allowed to legally own weapons. This is not some criminal mastermind who preplanned this by all accounts; it was a crime of opportunity. He happened to have the gun and got riled up or in an argument and used it. But for the mentally ill allowed to own guns this likely would not have happened; at the most been a fist fight.

And the common rebuttal that oh they just would have gotten the gun illegally doesn’t work here as the mentally ill generally dont have the mental capacity to think that way, and it certainly would have stopped this target at least. It could have easily have happened in Alaska on his corner where there are more armed citizens; someone still would have gotten shot at the end of the day.

The mentally ill should not own guns and once committed forfeit them. Period

How could he have an “active military ID,” if he had been in a psychiatric hospital, in Nov. and was investigated by Homeland Security? He said he was forced into fighting for ISIS, and they let him out of the hospital unsupervised?

Another patsey in a government psyop. Find a wackjob, use a CI to program him into an act and use it to increase your budget at a time when youmare under scrutiny by the new boss. Coincidence it happened during the Trump intel briefing? There are no coincidences.

I get it that people want more info, but is it not time for journalists to be journalists and reporting facts as they know them minus the potential for political 3 pointers?

The article stated that “Santiago also has a record for minor traffic violations and was evicted in 2015 for not paying rent.”

Really?

The article also mentioned that he was investigated for child porn, and I have to ask… other than tarring and feather the guy, why would a “real news” outlet bring up petty, unrelated facts when they already have severe credibility issues? My request for journalists is simple… disconnect your personal axes to grind, vett your facts, keep it relevant, and make it your goal to present information without any consideration to the potential political fallout.

If they can’t do that they are in fact making “fake news”, and we the people should hold their feet to the fire and demand more from those who have access to the megaphone of TV, radio and internet in the U.S., and take it away it from those who are bent on using their power to advance political causes rather than reporting the facts, unbiased and with the goal of informing the public; rather than trying to “steer” it to an outcome they would like.

Sadly we don’t take care of our Veterans as much as we should. There is a shortage of mental health facilities in many states and the VA has long lines and questionable care. Not pointing fingers or wanting to play Politics, but I do hope that Trump follows through on his promise to improve how we treat out Veterans. This could have easily been prevented